This chapter introduces two main characters! I hope you like it! It is less dark than the last one. Disclaimer: don't own the pre-existing characters, please don't sue.
BOOK 1 CHAPTER 2 – The Underground
Saia tried not to sleep but it felt as if Oogie would fly forever. It was as if she had all the time in the world to fly and nowhere to go. Eventually a soft landing shook her out of the daze she had slipped into during the smooth flight. Looking around, Saia saw ruins. Everything here was destroyed, due to time and neglect or a battle of some sort though Saia was unsure.
A sound overhead caused her to look up, and Saia was amazed at what she saw. Above her flew many bison, just like Oogie, and Saia's heart skipped a beat. She had never considered that she would ever see the remaining flying bison; it was an honor she did not feel she deserved.
Before she could dwell too long on that Oogie's nose was at her back, nudging her forward, and the only thing Saia could think of was how her mother had told her the story of her father and Oogie, and her grandfather and Appa. A gift, an offering of sorts made the most sense to garner a partner from this crowd, for that seemed Oogie's intent. Oogie had belonged to her father, and while she herself was her father's legacy, or so her mother had said, Saia knew she needed her own partner for her journey.
Looking around, Saia tried to find something she could offer to one of these beautiful creatures, before she remembered some of the things stashed in her pack from her and her brother's trip to the market. She had bought a few goodies for herself when Rohan had not been looking and now seemed like a good time to share. Reaching into the satchel strapped over her shoulder, Saia pulled out a red fruit, a fruit she did not see anywhere on this ruined land, and then moved away from Oogie, after gently patting her on the nose in thanks.
Choosing a place to sit and watch, Saia patiently waited until she noticed a few younger bison flying nearby, almost directly over her. They descended a little ways off and Saia stood, making her way towards them.
As her mother told it, the bison chose the person, not the other way around, so once Saia was close enough to them she held out the apple and waited to see if one would come to her. Not long after a bison a little smaller than the rest walked towards her, sniffing her hand. Then it took the fruit from her carefully and ate it, looking straight into her eyes the entire time. It came closer after that, and made what could only be described as a huffing sound in her face, before it licked her.
Laughing, Saia wrapped her arms around her new found friend, and then Oogie was there, and it was as if none of the things that had happened recently were real to Saia, if only for a moment. It took little time to realize her new partner was a girl, just like Oogie, and a name popped into Saia's head as if it had been spoken there.
"Lillet," she said, smiling into her friend's fur, Oogie gently rubbing her back with her nose in encouragement and comfort. "You are Lillet."
Lillet seemed pleased with her name, and made that same horse like sound against her.
Turning, Saia hugged Oogie hard again, seeming to understand what could not be spoken. Oogie was staying behind, with her own kind, to live out the rest of her days. Lillet was Saia's partner now, and they would take care of each other. With a tear slipping down her cheek Saia knew she had to let go of the last link she had to her home and her family, and she could not thank Oogie enough for taking care of them as long as she did and for bringing her here to find Lillet. Oogie licked her face and nudged her back towards Lillet, also seeming sad but happy at the same time.
Republic City
The city is gloomy and mute with only a few shades of gray resonating from the gloom. We see an underground cover slightly moved and underneath it we travel through the sewer. Its dark and dank as we fly through the sounds of cheering grows louder and more apparent. We stop at a big clearing and see huge stands surrounding an underground Pro-Bending arena. There is a match commencing.
There is a green team and a blue team going at it in the arena. The green team is struggling with two in zone three and one in zone two. Suddenly a fire blast knocks one of the green team off and the announcer speaks, "Looks like the Rabaroos are in hot water folks!" An earth blast knocks the other in zone three out and water knocks the third back into zone three and they get the green light to advance. They move foreword and knock the last player off the platform. "Knock out!" The crowd roars with applause. The team still in the arena soaks up the attention as they wait for the platform to come and get them. Once it is there they hop off and go back to their waiting area.
"Whoo! Thanks for winning the second round tie Minoru." A girl takes off her helmet and waves her ponytail around, she looks at another one of the players with her burning golden fire nation eyes. The other player, Minoru, pulls off his helmet and shakes his hair out with one hand.
"Just doing my job Hina, I am team captain after all."
"Yeah, yeah, show off." They both laugh and their water bender waves as he walks out. "See you tonight, Jin!" Hina waves back. She grabs a towel and wipes her brow clean from sweat.
"If only there were enough air benders to be on the team. That would really spice things up."
"Minoru… there aren't any left... they were wiped out..." She throws the towel at him and he catches it.
"Yeah, yeah… sucks for the avatar though.. Poor sucker won't be able to learn air bending too easily.." Minoru and Hina both change into normal gray bland clothes as they talk.
"The avatar is probably not going to save us, we're on our own."
"You can be very depressing, you know that?" Minoru had to comment.
"Hey, you brought it up."
Minoru sticks out his tongue at Hina and she does the same.
"Alright, we need to go topside again and pretend to be normal until our match tonight." Minoru puts a hat on his head and Hina lets her hair down from the pony tail.
"I hate being normal." Hina pouts as they travel through the tunnels to the surface. "I wish it wasn't this way..."
"You're not the only one." When they reach topside there is bustle so nobody notices them and a lot of chatter is going on.
They hear bits and pieces of the conversations around them. "Did you hear… air bender… avatar… the only person who could air bend right…?" Hina and Minoru look at each other as they keep hearing this as they walk. They turn the corner and Hina stops and looks at Minoru with sparkly eyes.
"Do you think that was true? There's an air bender out there that could be the avatar?"
"I don't know but if it is true… there might be hope for us yet." He pats her back, "I'll see you tonight?" Hina nods and they run off in opposite directions.
"The usual spot!"
"Got it!"
City Outskirts
Saia and Lillet land in a thicket behind a large hill quite a distance away from the city to not attract attention. Saia hops off of Lillet and her new found friend licks her, Saia giggles and pets her. "Now I need you to hide while I go into town." Lillet huffs and nudges Saia's arm, "I'll only be gone for a while… I'll be back by dawn at the latest to check up on you I promise." Lillet licks her again and nuzzles Saia and she gives her flying bison a big hug. She runs off and reaches town in no time.
Republic City
Saia enters the city and quickly notices how dark and gray it is. Nobody is wearing colors from any nation which she found weird because she had always worn colors. In fact she was wearing them right now. She quickly walked through town getting wild stares and glares from everybody she passed and murmurs were surrounding her. She suddenly thought this wasn't such a good idea to come into the creepy city of no color.
Hina was shopping nearby. "Should I get this grey... Or this grey?" She was holding up some clothes.
The cart merchant looked annoyed at Hina, "Just pick one, they're the same."
"No… this one is a different shade of grey."
"Just pick one and…" the merchant stops.
Hina looks at the merchant and sees he is staring at something; she turns around and sees Saia wandering through the town with color on. Hina holds up the clothes and switches each shade of gray with Saia's head, she picks the darker shade and leaves her bill on his cart. "Thanks!" She runs over to Saia. "Hey girlie!" She walks right up to Saia which makes Saia take a step back.
"Um, hi."
"Come with me." Before Saia can mutter another word Hina grabs her arm and drags her down an alley. "You just come into town? The cops will arrest you for wearing color here…" She hands her the clothes she just bought.
"But these are your clothes…" Saia tries to hand them back, but Hina won't take them.
"It's either put those on or the cops will take you in and put you in a pair, your choice."
Saia looks at the clothes then looks back up at Hina, "Thank you."
"Name's Hina."
"Saia."
"Saia? Hmm, exotic… Go on and change already." Hina stands watching her crossing her arms.
"In front of you?" Hina groans and turns around. "Thank you." Saia changes and Hina taps her foot waiting for her to finish. "I'm done."
"Where you from?"
Saia looks around holding her colorful clothes, "The earth kingdom."
Hina grabs Saia's clothes and stuffs them in her bag quickly and shuts it, "There. So where were you headed?"
"I'm looking for someone."
"Who?"
"Well… I don't know their name… or what they look like."
"Oh that's helpful…"
"I thought the city would be the best place to start looking so I came here."
Hina checks her beaten up pocket watch and claps it shut, "Well I got to go meet someone so cya!" Hina starts to walk off but Saia quickly grabs her arm.
"Wait! You're not going to leave me here alone are you?"
"Well I can't help you if you don't know who you are looking for and I'm going to be late so.."
"Please." Saia turns on her classic puppy dog face, reminiscent of Aang's puppy dog face and Hina sighs and grabs her hand.
"You don't rat do you..?"
"No, why?"
"Because where I'm taking you they'd kill you if you did." Saia gulps and travels with Hina, when nobody is looking they hop into a sewer hole. Saia goes into a dark tunnel with Hina holding her arms, scared.
"Where are we going exactly?"
"To freedom…" Hina smiles and they travel through the tunnel, a small light appears at the end of the tunnel and they walk out. Saia shields her eyes and lets them focus, once they do her jaw drops. There are people bending and training all over the place! "This is the pro-bending training area. That's right, I'm a pro-bender." Hina shrugs basking in the attention from Saia.
"What do you bend?"
"Fire."
Saia smiles and walks around looking at things, "This place is beautiful! Nobody hunts benders here..?"
Hina puts on some gloves and fire bends around herself with flare. "They don't know about it."
Saia nods and keeps looking at stuff, Minoru walks up to Hina, "Hey Hina, who's your friend?" he looks at Saia with a warm smile.
"Oh, this is Saia, I found her in the market and she was wearing colored clothes so I helped her by buying her new clothes."
Saia looks up at the lean earth bender and she blushes, "Nice to meet you."
"My names Minoru." They shake hands, "Are you staying to see the match?"
"There's a match tonight?" Saia exclaims all excited.
"Sure is girlie! We're playing the Platypusbears!" Hina smacks Minoru's back, "Our captain is scared we will lose but I know we'll win!"
"Hey! I'm not scared; I was just saying we lost to them last time…"
Saia laughs and gets pumped, "Of course I want to see it!" Hina walks off with Saia and Saia's sleeve, which is orange falls out of Hina's bag and Minoru, sees it. He raises and eyebrow and follows after them, his hands in his pockets.
Pro-bending Arena
Hina, Minoru and Jin change and Saia covers her eyes, Minoru whispers to Hina, "What nation did she say she came from…?"
"Earth."
Minoru looks at Saia and has a suspicious look on his face.
Hina stares at him making the face, "What..?"
"Their colors are shades of green and bright yellow…"
Hina looks at the sleeve that's hanging out of her bag and her eyes go wide, but before they can say anything the announcer calls, "Both teams please meet on the platforms!" They all rush over to the platform.
"Should we be worried..?" Hina looks at Minoru.
"I don't know."
They go out and walk onto the arena and the platform retracts. "Round one!" The bell goes off and they start the match, Saia is cheering in the stands. Hina shoots a fireball and suddenly a bullet knocks her fireball out, Hina looks shocked and they all look up. Gunfire starts going wild and the crowd is in chaos. The cops are shooting down anyone and everyone.
Minoru stares in horror, "Oh no…"
End Chapter 2